unique – Blooming Resilient

Creative Life: Where To Start

Starting to Create Again

Have you ever gone through seasons where you felt uninspired and unmotivated to create? I’ve been going through that lately! It’s been driving me crazy!! I love to create and craft! I truly believe getting creative is so important for our self-care! But sometimes finding the energy to do it can be difficult. Yet there are so many benefits to creating. Being creative can be so empowering! It is also a great source of hope, joy, and relaxation!

Where do you start when you are wanting to get back to being creative or to begin a creative chapter in your life?

Just start! Start where you are and work with what you have! Sometimes when we are wanting to start a new habit or new goal we set these crazy high expectations for ourselves. If it’s your goal to be more creative maybe start with having one creative activity a week or a couple of evenings a week to work on creative projects. It can look however best fits your life in this season. My goal is just to be creative no matter what that looks like! Whether it’s a completed project or a part of a project just get creative!

What will you create today or this week? Post pictures in the comments! My hope for myself is to start being more creative more often and to simply start something positive and refreshing in my life! What is your creative goal in this season?

I’ve written about three projects in this post that I’ve done this week! I hope they will get your creative ideas flowing!

Wallpaper Adventures

Today I was walking around my craft room wanting to start a creative project. I recently purchased this wood circle from Hobby Lobby. I didn’t have any particular plans when I bought it, but today when I was looking at it decided I wanted to decorate it with embossed wallpaper. I love working with embossed wallpaper! It is so pretty and fun to paint! This may be a strange decision, but the wood sign has a frame on the front so I decided I would decorate the back so that it is one even piece. I traced the wood circle on the wallpaper and cut it out.

I used hot glue to attach the wallpaper to the back of this wood frame. Hot glue can sometimes dry kind of fast so I did it one section at a time.

I wanted to do this layered paint look on the wallpaper with the brown gel stain and green paint. I did a dry brushing technique for the green and watered down gel stain.

I just painted as I wanted. I started with the gel stain and then the green. I just went back and forth with the brush. I did wipe it with the cloth a couple of times to give it a weathered look. This is how it turned out!

What is your creative style?

Dollar Tree Plant Sign

I’ve been thinking about several different craft ideas today, but landed on decoupaging this plant sign from the dollar tree. I love decoupaging with different materials and in various surfaces. It’s so easy to do and so relaxing! I used a bright green and brown paper for this project. I traced the sign on the paper and cut it out.

Then I brushed mod podge on the metal sign and laid the paper on top. You can then seal it by brushing mod podge on top of the paper. It’s such an adorable little hanger!

I love this sign because it’s such a good reminder to keep growing!

Felt Lavender

I’ve been thinking about making more felt lavender for a while and today was finally the day. I’ve already done some of the steps to make the felt Lavender previously so it will be a quick craft to make. Felt lavender is very simple to make. I have photos of the stages below.

First, you have a strip of purple felt whatever size you would like then fold it and glue it in half.

Then cut small slits into the side that’s not glued.

Then use hot glue to wrap it around a floral stem.

Once the stem is all wrapped with your felt you have a lavender stem! Super easy! So I already had a few made and then I made enough to fill this Jean pocket. You could put these in a vase or any kind of container!

This Lavender craft I already had parts of the felt prepared from months ago so it only took me 15 minutes to get the whole thing created. Is there a project you’ve gotten all the supplies for and it is all prepared but haven’t had the time to complete it? Maybe today is the day!!

Easy Thankful Sign

Supplies Needed:

Wood Sign, I got mine from Hobby Lobby
White Paint
Brush
Sandpaper
Thanksgiving Paper Placemat
Paper Trimmer
Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
Macramé Yarn

Instructions

This sign is really easy to make!! You can make this with any paper placemat. I love these “thankful” placemats from Hobby Lobby!

The first step I took was to paint the edges of the wood sign white. Once the paint is dried you can sand it to distress it.

Then trim the paper placemat to fit your sign. I just used a regular paper cutter. Once the paper placemat is the right size you can use hot glue to attach the paper to the sign. I found this to be the fastest and easiest way to secure the placemat to the sign.

I bought this macramé yarn at Michael’s when it was only $5. You can use any color that matches your sign. I used hot glue to line the yarn around the edges of the sign.

Then you have a cute and fun sign!! It can be so simple to make unique and fun items for your home!

Check Out More Posts Below!

Fall Wreath & Dollar Tree Towel

Shadow Box Snowman

Thankful Sign

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Dollar Tree Bowl Light

Supplies Needed:

Candle holder
2 Clear Plastic Dollar Tree Bowls, the same size
E6000 Glue
X-ACTO Knife
Hammer
Sand Paper
Fairy Lights
Spray Paint (optional)

Instructions:

This is such a fun idea! I got this idea from Barb, at the Shabby Tree. The big difference between the way I did it is that I wanted to light structure to be all glued together and wanted to make a hole in the top bowl to put the fairy light in.

To make the hole in the top bowl I used an X-ACTO knife. Be very careful when attempting to do this. I turned to bowl upside down and slowly and firmly pressed the knife along the inner circle at the bottom of the bowl. I went around several times until there was a significant groove etched around the inner circle.

This may not be best practice, but it worked for me. I used a small hammer and firmly tapped the middle of the bottom of the bowl and the plastic broke off where I had made a groove with the knife. Once all the plastic is out from the bottom of the bowl, you can then use a small piece of sandpaper to smooth the edges.

I spray painted the bowl that I cut the bottom out of. Then you can glue the first bowl to the candle stand with E6000 glue. I put the glue on the candle stand and then put the bowl on top. Once that is in place, you can then put E6000 glue on the rim of the already glued bowl and place the second bowl upside down on top of it. The hole you created should be pointing upward so you can put the lights inside.

Then add lights!!

I love this because it is tall enough to be on the floor or a table! Right now, it is like a small pillar next to my craft closet!! I love it!!

Paint Kit Craft Ideas

Do you enjoy paint kits?

I was excited when I found this Black History Month paint kit in Michael’s. I am not a good painter, but I enjoy the process of painting! I did not use all the paints included in the kit and used some paint that I already had.

I painted the picture outlined. I painted it a bit different then the picture that came with the kit. I wanted to make the woman darker and tried to add some curly texture to her hair.

I love book pages and I wanted to incorporate a book page background of this picture. I ripped some book pages into strips. I then brushed mod podge on the canvas, placed the strip down, and then brushed mod podge on top of the strip to decoupage it.

I decoupaged all around the edge of the circle and I covered some of the leaves at the bottom and will repaint those when the mod podge dries.

Once the mod podge was dried I repainted some spots that were covered by the book pages and added more color to her hair. I then added embellishments!

I made some fabric roses for the head band and the bottom of the picture. I had some charms that I also wanted to add and hot glued them to the canvas. It’s so fun to make paint kits your own and add any features or decorations to them that you would like to! Half the fun is being creative and using what you have to make something new!

Tomato Cage Tree

Tutorial of how to make a tomato cage tree with garland.

Supplies Needed:

Tomato Cage, I got mine from the garden center, at Lowe’s
6-8 Garlands
3 Zip Ties
Desired Decoration

The decorations I used for this tree are artificial green berry stems, leaf ornaments, paper flowers, and a Christmas bow. You can see how I made this bow at this link:

https://daepreston.wordpress.com/2021/10/04/making-bow-with-repurposed-clothes/